It's an October responsible for unusual weather which we'll not soon forget once it closes at midnight Saturday. Rain has fallen more frequently than in any October since 1925 -- on 22 days since the first of the month, 19 of them measurably.
Midway Airport's eye-catching 7.69" October total -- which includes Thursday night and Friday's 2.26" downpours -- finishes nearly three times "normal." The month's gray skies have permitted only 33% of October's possible sunshine -- a far cry from the 58% which is normal -- and the least October sun here over the past quarter century. It's among the three lowest October sun tallies since 1893. And if the wet, gray weather hasn't been enough, October's 48.9-degree average temperature comes in at 5 degrees below the long-term average, making it the 19th coolest in 139 years. It's estimated home heating may have been up as much as 21 percent over a year ago.
The wind-driven deluge Thursday and Friday -- the 2nd to drench the area in a week -- produced eye-catching totals. Early measurements from Weather Bug rain gauges ranged as high as high as 3.65" at Hebron and 3.54" at Darien. Chesterton picked up 2.74" and Kankakee County's Bonfield was swamped by 2.55" while National Weather Service CO-OP observers reported 3.10" at Portage, Ind.; 2.50" at Woodridge; 2.39" at Romeoville; and 2.26" at Oak Brook and Peotone.
State Climatologist Dr. Jim Angel of the Midwestern Regional Climate Center reports statewide rainfall in October will finish 2nd wettest since 1895. It's the wettest to occur in Illinois since 1941.
Friday's 67 degrees not enough; October the first in 92 years not to generate a 70-degree high
While temperatures and surging humidities (dew points, a measure of atmospheric moisture, surged into the mid 60s) produced a springlike feel to the air Friday and highs of 67 degrees at O'Hare and 68 degrees at Midway, the month closes at midnight as the first October in 92 years which has failed to produce a single 70-degree high. That's happened in only two Octobers over the 139-year Chicago weather record. Temperatures did reach 70 Friday at Gary!
Midway Airport's eye-catching 7.69" October total -- which includes Thursday night and Friday's 2.26" downpours -- finishes nearly three times "normal." The month's gray skies have permitted only 33% of October's possible sunshine -- a far cry from the 58% which is normal -- and the least October sun here over the past quarter century. It's among the three lowest October sun tallies since 1893. And if the wet, gray weather hasn't been enough, October's 48.9-degree average temperature comes in at 5 degrees below the long-term average, making it the 19th coolest in 139 years. It's estimated home heating may have been up as much as 21 percent over a year ago.
The wind-driven deluge Thursday and Friday -- the 2nd to drench the area in a week -- produced eye-catching totals. Early measurements from Weather Bug rain gauges ranged as high as high as 3.65" at Hebron and 3.54" at Darien. Chesterton picked up 2.74" and Kankakee County's Bonfield was swamped by 2.55" while National Weather Service CO-OP observers reported 3.10" at Portage, Ind.; 2.50" at Woodridge; 2.39" at Romeoville; and 2.26" at Oak Brook and Peotone.
State Climatologist Dr. Jim Angel of the Midwestern Regional Climate Center reports statewide rainfall in October will finish 2nd wettest since 1895. It's the wettest to occur in Illinois since 1941.
Friday's 67 degrees not enough; October the first in 92 years not to generate a 70-degree high
While temperatures and surging humidities (dew points, a measure of atmospheric moisture, surged into the mid 60s) produced a springlike feel to the air Friday and highs of 67 degrees at O'Hare and 68 degrees at Midway, the month closes at midnight as the first October in 92 years which has failed to produce a single 70-degree high. That's happened in only two Octobers over the 139-year Chicago weather record. Temperatures did reach 70 Friday at Gary!
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